The Decision to Travel

I will take you back to sometime in the fall of 2015 when I started randomly talking to Trevor about travelling the world, and house sitting along the way. We had already put our house up for sale (as I mentioned on our home page), but I hadn’t yet brought up my travel ideas with him until shortly after. We recorded our conversation thinking that in the future we may want to host a podcast together, but unfortunately the audio was so poor that I decided to just transcribe the “Coles Notes” version for you on here. This was literally one of the first conversations I ever had with Trevor about house sitting. I have highlighted Trevor’s voice in red to make it somewhat legible.

“The stars seem to be aligning perfectly for this decision. You want to leave your job, I might be leaving my job (this was before I lost my job); we are selling the house – all this stuff is already happening beyond our control, so it just seems like it was all meant to be that way. You have always wanted to travel and then you met me. Maybe you were meant to meet me so that you would have this adventure in your life. We just have to decide whether we are going to do it or not. I feel confident in the research that I have done that this isn’t a risk. People do this for a living. They have done it for years and years and this is their lifestyle choice. They might come home twice a year and visit but otherwise they don’t live here anymore.”

“I just find it interesting how often you talk about missing your family even being THIS far away.”

“Trust me, I know I am going to miss them. I told my Mom I can’t leave Maddy (my Niece), because I would miss her too much. Mom said that I can’t make a life decision based on missing someone, and that I can’t forgo my happiness for that, and she is right. Maddy is at the age (4 ½) where she will remember both of us, and obviously I’m going to miss my parents like crazy. How do you feel about leaving Evan? (Trevor’s Nephew) He isn’t old enough to know us yet.”

“Obviously, I would like to be a part of his life, but that’s where going away for a shorter amount of time makes more sense to me because if this becomes the way we live and he knows us by short visits, then its’ like we are acquaintances more than anything.”

“What is the biggest hesitation and the biggest intriguing part of this idea to you?”

“The biggest intrigue is the idea of living in another culture, and doing something that I enjoy doing on top of that. It sounds very fulfilling. The biggest hesitation is that I have grown up 36 years in this spot.”

“We are talking about the opportunity to go to any country you have ever wanted to go to and live in some of the most luxurious houses you can imagine and to not have to pay a cent. We get to look after animals that we don’t get a chance to own at home. We can have a lifestyle that you never dreamed of. I can’t imagine why staying here and living a normal life would even appeal to you at all compared to that. You have been living your life for other people for years, and here is your chance to live your life for yourself. We don’t have to be ordinary.”

“I know we don’t. It’s been a slow process over the last few years with me changing the way that I do things; changing who I am and what makes me happy. You are right; I was at the height of doing things for everyone. My decisions lately are because it’s good for me.”

“I feel I am not meant to live this life as ‘normal’. I don’t fit into the rat race and I don’t conform to societies’ view of what I am supposed to be and what a woman is supposed to be, and I just want to be in control of my own life.”

“I feel more like that all the time.”

“I am not looking at this as a one year thing; I am looking at it as a permanent thing or a very long-term thing. I don’t want to be held up in Ontario in a one-bedroom apartment, that doesn’t sound like fun. If you were totally against this, then I would have to stay. That would be sad for me obviously, because it’s not like I am going to divorce you to travel the world.”

“It’s good that I am flexible, and I don’t have a rigid way I need to live my life. I want to do something that is going to make us both as happy as we can be. I will say that I do better in open spaces, rather than densely populated cities”.

“How are you ever going to survive in Bangkok or Tokyo?”

“I look at those places as somewhere to go on vacation, and then go home, because that is sensory overload for me.”

“The opportunities are endless. You look at these postings for house sits and you just pick one (well you pick 10 because you are not guaranteed one). You have to apply to them and give references, do a Skype interview, etc. That is the fun of it all – you pick a handful of places you are willing to go to and it is the luck of the draw which one picks you and that’s where you go. That’s how you live – the next one that takes you that is where you go, so it is kind of exciting in that way.”

“So what opportunities are out there that you have seen?”

“Well, they range from one week over Christmas to 1 year! They exist all over the world. If you haven’t been somewhere before and you are not sure if you like it, then you would pick a shorter timeframe. On the other hand, if you love a place, then you might want to settle down there for a while and not travel so much.”

“Do they pay for house sitting?”

“No, you get to stay in someone’s house for free. Sometimes they throw in a car. You know what you are getting though before you go. I saw one the other day which was specifically looking for a gardener and they need someone to tend to them. Other sits have animals, and they want to make sure you are there to look after them. The majority of house sits are for animals. They also include all utilities (a/c, water, hydro, television and internet, etc. Sometimes the longer house sits ask you to pay, but that is very rare.”

“I have a feeling I know where we are headed. But we will leave it there for now.”

That sounds pretty similar to the conversation I had with Grandpa when I suggested he quit his job, we sell the house, buy a trailer and follow the sun . Nothing is more fun than living your dream. Enjoy yourselves!